Lexical and gestural development in 5p deletion syndrome-A case report

Individuals with 5p deletion syndrome (also known as cri du chat syndrome) have various speech and language problems. The aim of this work was to examine early gestural and lexical development in a boy with this syndrome and to see to what extent his skills in these areas were delayed and/or deviant when compared to typically developing children.

The participant's parents completed the Norwegian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development inventories (CDI) ten times over a period of five years. His scores were compared to those of typically developing infants aged eight to 20 months.

It was found that the subject followed a considerably delayed, but not deviant, developmental trajectory in three areas, receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary and communicative gestures, compared to typically developing infants and toddlers.

The speech and language problems of individuals with 5p deletion syndrome, which have been documented in the domains of phonetics and phonology and grammar, also extend to gestural and lexical development. The findings of this study will have clinical implications for assessment, in that a broad assessment of gestural and lexical skills should be carried out as early as possible as a basis for interventions to improve communicative skills.